Why Astrology?

Astrology has always been a favourite topic of discussion for the elders. They told me lots of stories about how the celestial beings (Navagraha or Planets in solar system) affect the way we behave. Sadly, it never convinced me to believe as no one was able to give me an explanation in the way I expect. And some would even get annoyed (the older the person you question, the more annoyed they’ll get…that was like directly proportional).. I even questioned some young people..”Do you believe in horoscope?”..they say “Oh yes, I do”..and so I asked “Why?”..and the reply was, “I don’t know”.. So people believe in something, but they don’t know why.

Let us look at how astrology works. Astrology (be it Hinduism or any other kind) believes that human behavior is greatly influenced by the positions of celestial beings (or Navagraha, according to Hindu belief). The list below shows the names given to these celestial beings according to Hindu Astrology:

1)      Sun                        - Suriyan

2)      Moon                    - Chandiran

3)      Mars                      - Chevvai

4)      Mercury               - Budhan

5)      Jupiter                  - Guru

6)      Venus                   - Sukran

7)      Saturn                   - Shani

8)      Rahu

9)      Kethu

Rahu and Kethu according astrology are the two points of intersection of the Moon and Sun path around the Earth. Refer the diagram below.

Source: http://www.sanskrit.org/www/Astronomy/Rahu.html

So, Rahu and Kethu are not celestial beings or planets, but are much associated to the occurrences of Sun and Moon eclipse. All these are said to have influence on human behavior. Using a person’s birth date, horoscope and zodiac, astrologers would predict which planets would give you the dominating effect at a particular time.

This means that there must be something from these planets that reaches us in the form of vibration (wave), energy, or particle. So, it must be a measurable effect. Logic, right? Now, these effects will have to travel billions of kilometers before reaching us, and in the course of its travel, it can lose some of its energy, and thus reducing its effects when reaching humans on earth. In other words, planets closer to earth like Mars (average distance : 225 Million KM from Earth) would have greater effect on humans compared to Saturn (average distance : 1.4 Billion KM from Earth). All you need is pure logic to figure that out. Right?

But the Astrologers say that distance does not play any role on the magnitude of effect, but only the position of planets. What they mean is that two planets regardless of how far it is from Earth can have similar effect on humans at the same time. Example, the Sun and Moon can have dominating effect on us. But how can that be true? By right, Moon should have greater effect because it is much much much closer to us than the Sun, right? Now, the Astrologers’ claim will be true if we assume distance has no influence on the planetary effects on humans.

If distance have no effect, then we humans should also be influenced by planets like Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, dwarf planets like Haumea, Makemake, and Eris,  Moons like Europa, Triton, Titan and countless others. But why aren’t these things taken into consideration? If you do, can you imagine how complicating things can get?

To sum it up, these are the few things that keep me skeptical about Astrology

      1) Time is important in using astrology to predict your past, present, and future. Hindu Astrology dates back thousands of years, developed by the great Rishis from India. Back in those days when watch was not invented and a day was not defined as having 24 hours,each hour having 60 minutes, each minutes has 60 seconds, how was time measured accurately to study a person’s fate 1000 years ago? If they had used positions of the Sun and Moon, then how reliable can the results be?

      2) Why isn’t Earth’s effect on humans taken into consideration in Astrology? The way I see things, it is the Earth and only Earth that influences our mind. Nature, people around us, animals, the air, the atmosphere, flow of water, chirping of the little birds, rainbows, children, war, poverty, religion, culture..these are the things that my mind can accept as the responsible parties that shape the way we think, behave, and act. 

   

      3) The possible explanation of why Earth is excluded in Astrology is that at the time Astrology was initiated, Earth was assumed to be the center of Solar System, and everything else moves in a circular path around the Earth. We know that is wrong. In fact, the path is not circular, but elongated. 

    

          4)  What about stars and planets in outer space, from other galaxies? Why did the astrologers ignored the effects from Alpha Centauri (the closest star to Earth after the Sun, about 4.3 lights years away). Maybe Alpha Centauri is too far to affect human behavior on Earth, but wait a minute, distance has no effect, as we discussed earlier..remember? 

      

      5) If it is true that we are living a pre-determined life, then faith in God fails, right? What is the point in having faith in God if whatever that’s going to happen to us is already pre-determined by the planets? What are you praying and hoping for? 

      

      6) In the case of Hindu astrology, it should have been designed using the ancient calendar system. For instance, the Tamil Calendar. But at present, we are no longer using it as we have adapted the western English calendar. How can you relate modern western English Calender with astrology that was developed using ancient calendar? Obviously these calendars are NOT the same. That’s why we are not celebrating Pongal on the same day every year. 

      

       7) There are many ways to determine your fate. There are Astrology, Palmistry (Palm reading), Nadi Astrology (reading pulse), Numerology and many more I guess. By right, all these methods of predicting past, present and future should give a consistent result. But, do they? Try it by yourselves. 

      

      8) All methods of prediction dates back thousands of years ago. How sure are we, the humans, are practicing EXACTLY the same methods developed by Rishis and sages in the past? How sure are we that there are no any kind of misinterpretation along the years? 

      

      9) Karma, is responsible for putting you on Earth. Astrologers believe that too. Based on your actions in the past life, karma will make sure you’re born at a particular date,time,place,during a certain orientation of planets. These, depends on how you lived your life in the past. If you’re good/bad in the past, your life now will be good/bad also. That’s fine to me. But what I can’t accept is that there are also ways of “Avoiding” the effects of karma. In other words, you can also avoid punishments for the mistakes you made in the past. Read the short story below:

A man met an Astrologer to find out why he is having countless problems and challenges in his life. His life was miserable. The astrologer says that the cause of his problem is his past. In his past, the man was a king/prince/some kind of powerful guy and had committed offences like killing innocent people and oppressing them, raping young women, and many other stuffs. So, that’s why he’s having a life with no peace. To solve all these problems, he has to perform certain rituals that of course would cost him some money. After performing these rituals, he lived happily ever after. The end.

That is probably one of many stories you can hear from people who have been to an astrologer. Does that really make any sense? Does that means that people can steal, cheat, rape, kill and still get away with it by just performing some rituals? So where is justice? Where is God? Is this what the astrologers are trying to tell us?

This is the reason why I get confused when people say they believe in God and at the same time believe in Astrology. I’m not going to say the whole thing is rubbish because I do have respect for the works of the elders and I do believe that it contains other meanings. I believe that Astrology is not a subject that you can learn by just reading some books you find in a book store and think you can go around predicting the future. It is an evolution full of changes, it is sad to see many people refused to accept that change. Science taught me that we need to have reason for everything. Don’t believe something just because our forefathers believed things were in such a way. If humans had been like that, we’d still be thinking that Sun moves around the Earth.